Based on more than 100
interviews and the author’s deep understanding of international affairs, this
welcome book makes “a data-driven case for optimism at a moment of gathering
darkness” by exploring how leaders in nations from Brazil and Canada to South
Korea and Indonesia have successfully tackled major world problems, including
inequality, immigration, corruption, civil war, Islamic extremism, and others.
What’s remarkable is Tepperman’s ability to identify and tell the complex
stories of places where realistic, pragmatic, and determined leadership at the
top has triumphed over staggering challenges. In Rwanda, where 1 million people
died in civil warfare between the Hutu majority and the Tutsi minority,
President Paul Kagame used local community tribunals to foster reconciliation
based on compromise. In Mexico, President Enrique Peña Nieto convinced three
warring political parties to overcome their differences and govern again. In
Singapore, former Prime Minister Harry Lee created good-governance initiatives
to battle serious corruption, including a tool kit to detect wrongdoing.
Perhaps most fascinating is the market-friendly cash-transfer program begun
under former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Brazil, which brought some
40 million people into the middle class between 2003 and 2011. Least expected
among “nations” overcoming political gridlock is New York City, where Mayor
Michael Bloomberg circumvented post–9/11 federal inertia and built a formidable
intelligence and counterterrorism apparatus. In each instance, writes the
author, government leaders ranging from repressive rulers to liberal democrats
embraced crisis as an opportunity for action. Aiming for less than perfection,
they expected to make mistakes, gave no faction everything it wanted, and
succeeded. While recognizing the unique aspects of each nation’s experience,
Tepperman finds lessons that can serve as templates elsewhere. Many readers
will be astonished to realize that these success stories—all rendered at length
in polished prose—have been lurking amid excessive doom-and-gloom headlines.

An important and
unusually engrossing book that merits wide attention.